The 'Coffin Homes' of Hong Kong

Associated Press photographer Kin Cheung spent time recently photographing some of the tiny subdivided housing units in Hong Kong, known as “coffin homes,” and those who live in them. Cheung reports that there is a “dark side to the property boom in wealthy Hong Kong, where hundreds of thousands of people priced out of the market must live in partitioned apartments, ‘coffin homes’ and other inadequate housing.” These residents are among an estimated 200,000 people in Hong Kong living in such tiny subdivided units, some so small that a person cannot even fully stretch out their legs.

Wong Tat-ming, 63, sits in his "coffin home" which is next to a set of grimy toilets in Hong Kong as he pays HK$2,400 ($310) a month for a compartment measuring three feet by six feet, on March 28, 2017. It is crammed with all his meager possessions, including a sleeping bag, small color TV and electric fan.#

In this March 17, 2017 photo, Li Suet-wen and her son, 6, and daughter, 8, are shown in their 120-square foot room crammed with a bunk bed, small couch, fridge, washing machine and small table in an aging walkup in Hong Kong as she pays HK$4,500 ($580) a month in rent and utilities. That's nearly half the HK$10,000 ($1,290) she earns at a bakery decorating cakes.#

A five year-old boy plays outside his tiny home which is made of concrete and corrugated metal on the terrace of a apartment block as he lives with his parents in an illegal rooftop hut in Hong Kong, on April 20, 2017.#

Wong Tat-ming, 63, sits in his coffin home, crammed with all his meager possessions, including a sleeping bag, small color TV and electric fan, on March 28, 2017. He and another elderly resident complained to a visiting social worker about bedbugs and cockroaches.#

Li Suet-wen and her son, 6, and daughter, 8, live in a 120-square foot room crammed with a bunk bed, small couch, fridge, washing machine and small table in an aging walkup in Hong Kong, photographed on March 17, 2017.#